Colorado Springs residents protested proposed cuts to Medicaid Friday afternoon. The protest took place outside U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank’s (R-CO) district office in the Catalyst Campus in downtown Colorado Springs, a building owned by Crank supporter and co-owner of the Colorado Springs Independent, Kevin O’Neil.
“We wanted to meet with our representative to voice our concerns about his vote on the Reconciliation Act,” said Deana, an organizer of the event who declined to provide her last name. “Obviously the big one is cutting Medicaid completely from the budget and so that’s going to affect 93,559 people on Medicaid [in Colorado Springs].”
About 1.1 million people in Colorado are on Medicaid.
On Feb. 25, Congress narrowly adopted a budget resolution calling for at least $880 billion in cuts in federal spending over the next 10 years. Most of those cuts would likely come from Medicaid in the form of a cost shift to states. The package is designed to finance the president’s agenda of tax cuts and other priorities like border security.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) voted against the proposed cuts. “The Republicans’ extreme budget proposal will cut critical services like health care to bankroll tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy,” he said in a news release. “We’re all for making government more efficient and cutting actual waste and abuse. This budget will not do that. It will increase inflation and our deficit, which is why I’m voting against it.”
The protest was organized by the Colorado Springs chapter of Indivisible, a national 501(c)4 “brought together by a practical guide to resist the Trump agenda.” A similar protest took place at U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans’ (R-CO) office in Northglenn last week.
“Using Medicaid dollars to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will not only harm low-income Americans but also cause disproportionate harm to lower-income states and rural hospitals who rely on Medicaid coverage to keep their doors open,” read a written statement provided by organizers to Crank’s office. “In Colorado Springs, the 93,559 people on Medicaid are at risk of losing their health care under Republican budget plans. This includes 41,563 children under the age of 19 and 4,877 seniors over 65.”
Deana not only has concerns about cuts to Medicaid, but also over the Trump administration’s recent moves to cut costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants, which would cut billions of dollars in funding for research to develop cures and treatments for diseases.
“My mom has dementia, and cutting dementia and Alzheimer’s research can impact her — she’s already got the disease — but me, as a genetic condition, I could be impacted with Alzheimer’s as well, and not having funding for that is basically a death sentence for anybody who has cancer and they’re needing that research,” said Deana. “Eventually my mom will need to go into a nursing home and her money will be spent. She will need to go into a Medicaid bed, and, in fact, one in three seniors are living below the poverty line, and six in ten are nursing home residents. So cutting that [funding] off is a great concern to me because what am I going to do with my poor mom?”
In response to an emailed request for comment on potential cuts to Medicaid and the protest at his office, Crank said, “I support the American people’s First Amendment freedom to peacefully assemble and express their views; it’s what makes America great.”
Crank will hold a telephone town hall for constituents on March 5 at 7 p.m. Indivisible will hold an “empty chair town hall” event at Library 21c in Colorado Springs on May 7 at 5:30 p.m.
